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The North Coast Wastewater Treatment Scheme is the most complex European Union (EU) Urban Wastewater Treatment and EU Bathing Water Directive compliance scheme ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. At a cost of £45 million, it forms one of Water Service’s largest ever single capital investment projects. The extensive scheme completely rationalized the existing sewerage systems and reconfigured the network so that wastewater from each of the areas of Coleraine, Portrush, Portstewart, Castlerock and Articlave is collected and transferred to a new two-stage treatment works at Craigtown More (a greenfield site between Portrush and Portstewart).
Here the wastewater is treated to a much higher standard, before being discharged offshore through a long sea outfall pipe. The transfer system places the treated effluent at a location off the coast at Port Gallen, where the depth and natural currents provide effective dispersion.
In addition to the treatment works, the project involved the laying of some 24 kilometers of pumping mains and gravity sewers along with the construction of eight new innovatively designed pumping stations. Five existing pumping stations were refurbished and their processes modernized, with other ancillary upgrades made. Existing wastewater treatment works (WwTW) at Ballycairn (Coleraine) and Articlave, along with pumping stations at Bogtown and Ardina were de-commissioned as part of the rationalization process.
The overall objective of this multi-million pound scheme was to raise the standard of treatment and in doing so improve the quality of bathing waters around the North Coast area by removing discharges of untreated wastewater. In particular, four of Northern Ireland’s most popular beaches: Caslerock Strand, Portstewsrt Strand, and the Portrush Mill and Curran Strands, as well as the tidal stretch of the River Bann, are benefiting from the scheme.
Incorporating the construction of a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment works, 16 new or refurbished pumping stations, a new long sea outfall and a host of new sewers, the project will accommodate future growth in the area in terms of residential, commercial, tourism and inductrial development to the year 2030 – representing a population equivalent of 107,000.
Construction work on the North Coast Wastewater Scheme incorporated:
58,100m3 of bulk excavation – all reused in landscaping
28,900m3 of imported fill material
22,200m3 of concrete
30,900m2 of formwork
1,300 tonnes of reinforcement
6,500m2 of mesh reinforcement
8,100m of ducting
4,100m2 of brickwork
45,800 of pipework and pipelines
32,900m2 of surfacing
12,300m2 of hard landscaping
40,400m2 soft landscaping
Construction management.
Construction.
Value engineering.
Procurement planning and contract administration
New wastewater treatment facilities.
Refurbishment and construction of 16 pumping stations.
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